"Owais is going to bat at number three for the simple fact that I think he was wasted at number seven," he said.

"He's a high-scoring, quick-scoring cricket player who plays cricket shots to get boundaries."

Pietersen had himself batted at three in England's last one-day series, and Ian Bell was there the time before.

But both those series - against New Zealand - were lost. And in the new regime, Bell will open the batting with the recalled wicketkeeper Matt Prior, while Pietersen will follow Shah in the batting order and appear at number four.

Things may change slightly for Twenty20 cricket, but Pietersen added: "There's definitely a strong case for Owais getting a good opportunity to bat and play long innings for England.

"I want to give the guys a good run at it and concentrate on a specific role so when something happens and you need to change, at least I've identified the roles the players need to play and they can just slot in and slot out.

"It's not a case of doing one thing on one day and another thing on another day."